David Reutimann, Landon Cassill Headline NASCAR Top 35 Points Battles

After a weekend to forget at Martinsville, Tommy Baldwin Racing driver David Reutimann found himself bumped from the top 35 in Sprint Cup owners' points by Landon Cassill by a single point. With two weeks to think about how to change the situation in Texas, Reutimann spent most of the first week weathering a media firestorm and the second focusing on a strong performance at Texas.

Cassill out-qualified Reutimann, starting 28th to Reutimann's 31st, but Reutimann's 26th-place finish topped Cassill's 30th-place run and allowed him to leapfrog the BK Racing driver in points. But luckily for Cassill, he beat the 34th-place team in points. Tony Raines, driving the fourth Richard Childress Racing car now maintained by Joe Falk, could only muster a 34th place finish.

As such, Baldwin and Falk effectively switched places in points.

This weekend, the Sprint Cup Series visits the Kansas Speedway for the STP 400, and with only four points separating those three teams, we could see another shift in the owners' standings come Sunday. But Falk has to be careful—with some other teams attempting to make their first start of the season at Kansas, even the smallest bobble in qualifying could end the owners' points battle for the time being.

Here are the last five in, and first five out, of guaranteed Sprint Cup starting spots coming into this weekend:

31. No. 36 Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet

Points: 104, +14 over 36th place

This Weekend's Driver: Dave Blaney

Outlook: The wave of attention and (relative) success that boosted this team at the beginning of the season appears to be coming to an end for Blaney. 

After a 37th place finish at Texas, Tommy Baldwin's lead car has finally sunk to sub-30th place depths, right about where many expected it to be, and will enter Kansas without a sponsor for the first time all season.

32. No. 32 FAS Lane Racing Ford

Points: 104, +14 over 36th place

This Weekend's Driver: Reed Sorenson

Outlook: Last weekend at Texas, Reed Sorenson wheeled this car, operating with a one-race sponsorship deal from JaniKing, to a 32nd place finish, seven laps down.

Owner Frank Stoddard was satisfied enough with that performance to bring Sorenson, who had been running a limited schedule for Turn One Racing, back for this weekend's event at Kansas.

33. No. 93 BK Racing Toyota

Points: 103, +13 over 36th place

This Weekend's Driver: Travis Kvapil

Outlook: Kvapil wasn't on this list at all last week, but after a less-than-stellar finish at Texas (38th place, completing only 114 laps before the engine blew), many teams have leapfrogged what has been BK Racing's best car in the owners' points standings.

Given the issues that Landon Cassill has had with keeping the team's other car in the top 35, it's very possible that one of their two entries may lose its guaranteed starting spot at Kansas.

34. No. 10 Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet

Points: 94, +4 over 36th place

This Weekend's Driver: David Reutimann

Outlook: All of the Danica Patrick fans can wipe the beads of sweat from their collective foreheads, as Reutimann got this car back into the top 35 at Texas by scoring 18 points.

That allowed TBR to leapfrog both the BK Racing car of Landon Cassill and the Richard Childress Racing car now being run by Joe Falk, taking a little bit of pressure off as Patrick's next start at Darlington closes in.

35. No. 83 BK Racing Toyota

Points: 91, +1 over 36th place

This Weekend's Driver: Landon Cassill

Outlook: In his first full-time Sprint Cup season, Cassill has already seen his share of ups and downs. He's fallen out of the top 35 once but immediately clawed his way back in at Martinsville with the help of David Reutimann's bad luck.

But as was the case entering Texas, Cassill enters Kansas with only a single-point cushion on 36th place; he's not so much racing the field this weekend as he is racing the 33 car.

36. No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet

Points: 90, -1 behind 35th place

This Weekend's Driver: TBA

Outlook: Tony Raines made his second Sprint Cup start of the season at Texas, finishing 34th and dropping two spots in owners' points to 36th. The first start came at Daytona, when he drove Front Row Motorsports' third car in place of Josh Wise and had it in position for a top five finish during the red flag for Juan Montoya's jet dryer incident.

New owner Joe Falk will look for another driver to bring his car back into the top 35 at Kansas, as Raines will drive for Turn One Racing.

37. No. 30 Inception Motorsports Chevrolet

Points: 63, -28 behind 35th place

This Weekend's Driver: David Stremme

Outlook: Inception suffered its first setback of the season at Texas, as Stremme failed to qualify for a race for the first time in 2012. That dropped this team, a dark horse for top 35 status at only 14 points out heading into Texas, back to a 28-point deficit heading into Kansas.

If Stremme somehow shocks the world with a big finish, this team could catapult itself into the top 35, or at least back into contention. That being said, don't hold your breath—they're not quite there yet.

38. No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford

Points: 60, -31 behind 35th place

This Weekend's Driver: The team isn't racing this weekend.

Outlook: The presence of this team on this list will always be a misnomer, as they don't run every race and they're guaranteed into every event by virtue of last year's Daytona 500 win.

But beyond that, they'd never be on this list if they were running the full schedule—driver Trevor Bayne is averaging 20 points per race in three starts, which would give them 140 in all seven races, ranking them 27th in owners' points (36 points clear of 31st place).

39. No. 49 Robinson-Blakeney Motorsports Toyota

Points: 60, -31 behind 35th place

This Weekend's Driver: J.J. Yeley

Outlook: For a first-year Sprint Cup organization with limited funding, this team has done respectably well thus far in 2012. Yeley is a decent enough driver to put the car into the field most weekends, while Robinson's cars were always solid if not spectacular in years of Busch and Nationwide Series competition.

Were this team to run in that series, they'd probably be a top-15 team, week in and week out.

40. No. 26 Front Row Motorsports Ford

Points: 51, -40 behind 35th place

This Weekend's Driver: Josh Wise

Outlook: This team appears to be doing its job perfectly—raising capital for Front Row's other two cars, driven by David Ragan and David Gilliland, as a way to help them move up the standings. Ragan broke into the top 30 a few weeks ago, while Gilliland had been 31st in points. 

Meanwhile, Wise has continued to qualify for races with few issues, and that perseverance may soon earn him a legitimate ride, much as Cup drivers of the 1980s and 1990s turned apprenticeships in low-budget rides into better opportunities.